If Buddha Won’t Save Me, I’ll Become a Demon

I am the Buddha’s chosen daughter. Eight months pregnant, I carried the Crown Prince’s child, a child of Heaven’s Mandate. As long as the baby survived and grew up healthy, the Buddha would protect us and grant us eternal peace.

But the Crown Prince’s beloved courtesan had a sore throat, so he forcibly removed the child from my womb, burned it into a relic, and used it to make tea for her throat.

I suffered Heaven’s retribution. My womb was destroyed, and I could never bear children again. I went to the Emperor to demand justice, but he merely married the courtesan off to a commoner.

The Crown Prince held it against me and sold me to a brothel for a single coin. Day after day, I was forced to serve men of the lowest sort. In the end, I contracted syphilis, my body rotted, and I died.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day I first entered the palace, when the Emperor was about to betroth me to the Crown Prince.

Facing his smug, certain gaze, I made my petition before all the civil and military officials:

“Your subject’s daughter does not wish to marry the Crown Prince! I would rather devote myself to the Imperial Preceptor’s Observatory and remain unmarried for life, praying for the blessings of Great Yan!”

He flew into a rage and reached out to drag me away, but a stronger, more powerful hand stopped him.

Xiao Huaijin, Great Yan’s God of War and a prince of a different surname who commanded a mighty army, shielded me behind him, his voice cold.

“Your Highness, please show some restraint.”

“The Buddha’s chosen daughter is not yours to touch.”